Robert Quinn’s 2020 Cap Hit Is Surprisingly Large, with All Guarantees in First Two Years (Plus an Opt-Out Kicker)

The (cap) hits keep on coming.

When the Bears agreed to terms on a contract with pass-rusher Robert Quinn, I was less concerned about the length (five years) and projected value ($70 million) and more curious about the contract’s structure and how the guarantees (an estimated $30 million) would be laid out.

With details starting to trickle out, I’m starting to get a sense of what the Bears are doing.

Alright, so this deal is palatable, to say the least.

It is essentially a three-year deal for Quinn. The $6.1 million cap number in Year 1 should give the Bears some necessary wiggle room. And should they feel the need to get out of it in the coming years, they can do so in 2023 and create $10.9 million in cap space with a $6.2 million dead money hit. And I suppose a worst-case scenario is that it is a two-year deal the team escapes from in 2022, albeit with a $9.3 million dead money hit and $6.7 million in cap savings.

Earlier, it was believed that Quinn’s price tag will come with a $16.1 million cap hit in 2020, full guarantees in 2021, and a neat little kicker that could have allowed the Bears to opt out of the remainder of the deal after the 2021 season with just $1.8 million in dead money. All things considered, that’s not bad. I’d venture to say that’s a solid job by the Bears’ contract writers to work in some cap-clearing options down the line.

The catch in all this is that in order to bring in Quinn, a bunch of money needs to be moved around. And quickly.

According to OverTheCap.com’s calculations, the Bears are $3,690,909 OVER the salary cap. Teams have until 3 p.m. CT to get UNDER the cap when the new league year begins. That means, cuts, contract restructures, and extensions have to be done in short order. They don’t have to be announced at a particular time, but the paperwork needs to be in with league offices at a decent hour.

written by

Luis C. Medina, who you can find on Twitter at lcm1986, has been covering the Chicago Bears at Bleacher Nation since 2017. Since then, he has written about 3 head coaches, 5 play-callers, and 11 starting quarterbacks. Previously, Luis wrote about the Cubs and MLB at BN (2015-16) and worked in the Chicago Tribune sports department (2011-16). He also co-hosted a Cubs postgame show, Outside the Ivy, in 2019.

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